Battle
The splashing of waves against the hull, the gentle caress of the ocean breeze, the smell of the salty brine, and the exuberant warmth of the midday sun flooded Carlo Puma's senses. For the first time since his crew elected him captain he had been able to really take in the surroundings of the open ocean, since his days were now mostly spent chartering trade routes for plundering and making efforts to appease his crew's wishes. Carlo took a deep breath through his feline nose, really savoring the smell. He reached towards his leg to retrieve his spyglass, quickly bringing it to his eye. As he focused the spyglass on the horizon, Carlo couldn't help but think about his captaincy.
At the time of his election, the captaincy seemed unreal. To think the crew would elect Carlo, a snow leopard-like demi-human, into the single most important role of the ship. He was still awestruck. Perhaps it was his charisma? Or maybe it was his ability with a pair of cutlasses? Either way, he was given the job, and he knew he wouldn't give the crew a reason to regret it. And as his attention drifted back towards the task at hand, he focused on the current
Today his ship would be crossing a relatively active merchant trade route off the Fennec Coast, and with any luck it'd be a good day to be a pirate. Plenty of ships traveled through the area, but Carlo knew that some of the potential targets could easily sink them, which brought him to his current state. He was on the lookout for potential targets, waiting on something, anything, that could be a good enough haul to justify an assault.
A slight thump could barely be heard over the song of the sea when the quartermaster returned from his short trip to the crow's nest. An almost unnaturally handsome man tapped one of his boots on the deck, a twitch of the vulpine ears poking out from his golden-orange sunset reminiscent hair the only sign that he wasn't entirely human. Victor Faulk, the Conquest's Quartermaster stood at what little attention he ever did. He strolled, as he always did, walking along as if he hadn't a care in the world and everything was perfect, until he stood near the helm. "Good morning Capp'in! How do you fare today?" He asked his friend in an intentionally fake-sounding accent, making sure to shake some of the water spraying all across the ship from his hair.
Carlo's attention was drawn to his close friend, as the greeting sunk in. Without taking his gaze off the horizon he returned the gesture: "It's been a while since I've seen such a vista, Mr. Foxxy. It's definitely a pleasant feeling." During his reply to Vic, Carlo noticed a wonderfully pleasant sight for the gold hungry pirates. What looked to be a derelict ship sat right off the shore of what could only be assumed to be a coral island. It was ripe for the taking and Carlo knew it would be the best chance the Conquest would get all day. "Vic, come take a look at this," Carlo motioned the spyglass towards Victor. "On the edge of the horizon, a few hundred meters away. That's our quarry for the day."
Vic's left ear flicked in annoyance at the name 'Foxxy' but he could tell by the tone of Puma's voice that something juicy was on his mind. He accepted the spyglass and his suspicions were confirmed at the sight that greeted him through its lens. "Aye Carlo, it's quite the tempting piece of prey, and I don't detect any magic users on her, at least not from here. But I can't help contemplating the possibility that she's more than she appears."
'
There is nothing on board that could be considered a magical conduit... sir.'
This new voice did not call out to the ship's captain, but instead crept into the back of his mind and hung there for a moment, every word echoing and tingling down Carlo's spine. They sounded more like thoughts than words, but they were certainly not his own. Some way off from the talkative pair at the front of the boat a man stood, his arms outstretched and his sunken eyes fixed forward.
Magical energy crept around his fingers, or at least what used to be his fingers, and dissipated into the air around them. Each tiny burst of energy formed a note which, after some careful manipulation, formed a word.
'
But it is hard to get an exact reading on the crew's potential. There is too much background energy. If there are no magicians on board that ship then their payload is likely high in magical equipment.'
After the foreign thoughts vanished from Carlo's mind, he realized the source to be Jian Aldair, the cursed mage they had picked up the last time they had docked for supplies. He spoke exclusively through telepathy, his vocal chords too damaged by his curse to even try to mimic ordinary speech. Carlo knew that the mage had been keen to all things otherworldly and, as far as he knew, was loyal. That did not mean he enjoyed the company of the rest of the crew, however, and Carlo thought it was a miracle that nobody had tried to push him over the ship's railings before. An overwhelming excitement grew in Carlo's chest and before long he was ready to bark out orders. "Ready the sails, boys! We have a haul waitin' on us!"
The atmosphere around the ship soon erupted with the same excitement that Carlo had felt, while all hands prepared to hoist the sails. Jian himself assisted, seeping magical energy into the oceans beneath them. The ocean current that carried the ship shifted, guiding the vessel forwards and helping it to build up speed. Within moments the ship was on the move, swiftly but cautiously prowling across the smooth waters with all eyes locked on the merchant vessel.
"Captain," a feminine voice cooed, "is there anything I can do?" A pair of gaseous limbs wrapped over Carlo's shoulders from behind, coalescing into a pair of fair-skinned arms, tipped with slender fingers that tapped the captain's collar. The rest of the young woman's body materialized with them, her long scarlet hair draped over a loose floral robe that exposed her shoulders and left an open slit up one of her shapely legs, and wide green eyes flickering in the light of day. To call her a vixen was more than a little accurate, as six large and fluffy tails with scarlet fur and silver tips wrapped around the captain's torso, and a pair of vulpine ears twitched against his neck.
For a moment, the excitement disappeared. For a moment, all Carlo could feel was the grip of her tails, the silky skin of her arms, and a distinct light pressure on opposite sides of his back.
Vic squinted at the sight of Valerie making a show of her entrance like every other appearance, and wasted no time pulling the fox off of the captain by one of her ears. She moaned in pain, but it wasn't the kind of moan you'd expect from someone in pain. Vic wondered if she did it just to make his life a little more hellish. Still, it was the most effective way to deal with her, and she couldn't fight back most of the time. "Come now, Val, it's time for business, not your shameless displays."
Valerie was Victor's cousin; a few years younger than him, a good bit shorter than him, and much more teasing with her foxy wiles compared to him. She was incredibly receptive to magic, though—enough that she could break down barriers between imagination and reality—so Carlo let her stay on the ship in Vic's care. Everything Victor made with his illusion magic, Valerie could turn it into a horrifying reality. Needless to say, they were rats you didn't want to corner. Even Jian refused to talk to the scarlet-haired fox, and any time he was asked why he avoided the question as best he could.
Vic wasn't sure it was her magic that had provoked that kind of response in him though.
She bounced away from Victor and Carlo, rubbing her ear to give it some relief from the tugging Victor had done. Her tails disappeared into her robe and her ears into her hair as if they were never there, and she told them, "I want to help! You always make me stay below deck, and it's boring when you're always busy."
The quartermaster patted her head like she were a child. "Well if you were a bit more responsible and were any better at helping maintain the ship, I would. There's no room for looky-loos on deck, and you need to handle a sword better before you take a more active role in plundering."
"I've been practicing! And if I can't cut them with a sword, I can throw them off their ship myself!"
"That's enough, Val," Carlo paused for emphasis, though his tail was still swishing from the startling hug from before. "We have need for haste at the moment, and this back and forth banter does us no good. Go back to your quarters and prepare for the assault. I'll call for you when we near the vessel. Understood?"
After a dejected sigh, Valerie became the gaseous figure she entered as once again, disappearing below decks and leaving the captain and his quartermaster to their work.
Once she was gone, Vic scratched the side of his head and let out his own sigh. "Sorry about that Carlo, but I'm obligated to take care of her. She's smart, but she still needs to learn that magic can't do everything (although, with her, Vic wasn't too sure whether that was true or not)... and she's just as shameless as the rest of our family." Victor included, of course.
"No worries, Vic. As long as she's either under your watch or mine she'll be fine. Remember, she's as much a friend to me as you are." And with that said, Carlo returned to the helm, ready to take the ship's wheel.
Victor moved away from the helm and shouted at the crewmen when they delayed in jumping to action. "Get moving, you slothful scallywags! And get some crew to man the portside cannons!" With a quick turn of the wheel, the ship careened slightly as it pointed portside, assisted by the change in direction of the ocean currents by Jian's command. Air caught the sails, heaving the ship forward. Aided by Jian's magic, what would have taken an hour took only minutes, as the Conquest was soon upon the merchant vessel.
Carlo gazed out on the mysterious source of magical energy, gauging his crew's next move. He knew that it'd be risky to go himself, but he needed someone trustworthy enough to handle themselves, along with whatever crew, on the enemy vessel. Victor was the only person that came to mind that could fill the role, and Carlo really didn't have much of a choice. "Vic! Gather a small group of men, maybe ten or fifteen of 'em. You'll be searchin' the ship for anything of worth. And take Jian with ya. He might be able to figure out where the magical energy is coming from if he's on the ship."
"Aye Captain." It was the only response necessary. Vic's line of thought had been much the same as Carlo's and he wasted no time gathering his small boarding party. Much to the chagrin of the previous night's watch most of his choices were from among the rascals sleeping down in the crew's quarters, he wanted the men who were the most rested with him on the merchantman. All the grievances were allayed with glares and a few harsh words, and before long the small boarding party was gathered on deck.
"Alright boys, cutlasses at the ready!?" He was answered by a few 'yarrs' and 'ayes' and various other sounds of assent. "Pistols primed and loaded!?" More agreements brought a smile to Vic's face, he'd made good choices. "Alright then, let's go get us some plunder! Thomas! Wilson! You'll be in charge of the second and third boat, Mr. Aldair you're with me in the lead boat."
Of course I am, thought Jian, as he stepped away from his perch at the front of the ship and joined the small crowd that was slowly piling into small rowboats. He was met with odd looks and wary expressions from the boarding crew, and while this would have once insulted Jian, he was more than used to it by now. Jian almost welcomed the air of unease he brought to the crew. He raised a hand to his face, stroking what he liked to imagine was a beard almost thoughtfully. To the rest of the crew, Jian ran six scythe-like claws through the mass of twisting tendrils that sprouted from the left side of his face, each one gently coiling around his fingers, actions that were completely involuntary.
Casting out words into the magical abyss again, Jian spoke as best he could. "While the ship here appears to be abandoned, judging by its magical signature alone I would wager that it is not. Keep your eyes peeled, your weapons steady, and prepare for the worst possible outcome. If you do not, you will die, and it will be your fault. I refuse to organise a proper burial for a fool."
Jian often proved that it was not only his bizarre appearance that discouraged others from socialising with him.
"Thank you for your input Jian, but these men didn't join the Conquest expecting long, healthy lives, and I should expect neither did you. From now on why don't you leave the public announcements to me? I'll gladly give the men your advice." Vic noticed the rowing had slowed and some of the men were still looking at him or Jian, he sighed before sending a wisp to burn the hindquarters of any laggard lazing about. "The mage is right you sluggish rascals, keep your wits about you but for the love of every divine anyone believes in
get moving!
Meanwhile, back at the helm of the ship, Captain Puma found his thoughts interrupted again. Valerie was back on deck and took a much less provocative route in tapping his shoulder, taking a clearly submissive stance compared to before. "I'm guessing you saw your cousin gathering men below deck?"
"Are you sure that there's nothing I could do to help?"
"I take that as a yes then. I suppose I could use a temporary aide, seeing how your cousin is currently raiding the enemy ship." To this, Valerie immediately brightened up. "Valerie, I need you to check the guns. Tell the remaining crew on board to be at the ready. Wouldn't want to be caught out in the open by a naval ship with our guard down."
With a cheerful cry, she disappeared, popping up around the ship and using her excited posture to get everyone readied for a potential battle. The Captain was relieved that he managed to keep her busy for a while. There was only so much of that face he could take.
The boarding crew had shipped off by now, creeping towards their target, wary of the potential dangers it may hold.
The boats were rowed towards the merchantman as quietly as possible, partially masked by the ever-present sounds of the waves. When they got close enough Vic leaped out of the lead boat and grasped one of the ships grooves to climb up. Once he'd made it onto the target's deck he threw down a small rope ladder for Jian and the rest of the boarding party to follow. After reassembling, Vic divided them up. "Three of you come with me down into her bowels, Mr. Aldair you will lead three more in after us and check around from the opposite direction, the rest of ya sweep the deck. There's always the possibility there might be somthing important up here as well."
With the teams divided up Vic lead the three crewmen who'd elected to go with him down the stairs to the lower deck, doing his best to echo his presence outward to detect the minds of any possible crewmen or hidden magic sources. Jian followed soon afterwards, three more crewmen in tow. They followed Vic for a while until the paths split, with Vic heading down the left path and Jian down the right. Both routes were dingy and dark, smelling of damp wood and salt, and almost identical in appearance.
Jian, like Vic, forced his mind outwards and let it flow through the halls of the ship's belly. He paid little attention to the directions he took, leaving the task of making a breadcrumb trail to the crew members that followed in his footsteps. Instead he let the magical energy guide him, a force that seemed determined to throw him off the scent, but he wasn't going to let it so easily.
Both search teams were very thorough, but there wasn't much to find. Vic and Jian both encountered a few pointless trinkets with minor residual traces of magic, but nothing enchanted or otherwise particularly valuable. After a short time they met up near the bow of the ship, neither having anything important to report. They were about to simply go back on deck and report the merchantman a dud when Vic noticed a rather out of place door right near the bow itself. "A room so close to the front of the ship? We may as well check it out, no stone unturned and all that."
As soon as Vic opened the door to the strange room both he and Jian felt a small amount of magic burst through the opening like a large amount of trapped air, bringing to mind the question of why they didn't feel anything emanating from the room earlier. Inside they found many more miscellaneous objects, with malleable amounts of arcane energy in them, yet neither could tell anything specific about their purposes. "Why have a room storing something as potentially important as magic artifacts or enchanted items right by the bow of the ship? If she were to crash, this room and everything in it would be the first things on the ship to be ruined."
The adjutant shrugged, his expression never changing. '
Stupidity, I'm sure. Few merchant ships seem to understand the threats that the sea possesses,' replied Jian, raising a hand and resting it against the door which had been left slightly ajar.
Looking to Vic for the directive, Jian slowly pushed open the door. It creaked loudly but swung open all the same. Magical energy struck the crew of pirates like a powerful odour, but only Jian and Vic with their magical proficiencies were skilled enough to register it. Jian's eyes widened in surprise, even if it was not entirely obvious with the mass of growths that covered his skin, at just how concentrated the magic here was. It could be cut with a knife.
The crew slowly stepped into the room, their steps slow and cautious. As far as they could tell, this medium-sized room was rather plain. It looked like further storage, a few boxes and crates tied down to the floor with rope. There was nothing here that was remarkable by any sense, and Jian even lifted up the lids of a few of the crates to check for anything inside. There was nothing.
But it certainly didn't feel like they were alone, a sense of pressure and stress that hung over them. There had to be something in here, but it was something neither Jian nor Vic could locate. It was frustrating and Jian felt somewhat powerless here. He fought the urge to leave and abandon the ship but held his ground but he knew it would achieve little. Jian stayed, but he folded his arms and scowled.
As soon as they'd entered the room Vic's ears had pricked suspiciously, and the entire time they were there his ears' occasional twitches and flicks grew ever more persistent. Something was nagging at him, sure the room was a potentially dangerous enigma, but that wasn't what was bothering him. He felt wrong at the very core of his being, a primal sense of dread strengthened by his hybrid blood. But Vic was a warrior, a pirate, a sailor, and most importantly the second-in-command of the Conquest's crew. He wouldn't turn tails and run just because of some stupid twinge in his ears, or so he thought.
They were only a few minutes into their appraisal of the room's contents when Vic's instincts howled too loudly for him to ignore anymore and he grabbed Jian's arm, knocking a metal sextant out of his hand. "This will probably sound stupid but I smell danger, we have to go
now." In a little turn of poetic irony at that moment the concentration of arcane energy in the room built up almost out of nowhere, and one of Vic's creamy tails showed itself unbidden and poofed out like it had been zapped by lightning. Jian's own body shuddered, the tendrils across his face quivering and flailing as if in panic. "Damn it!" Vic shouted while he pushed Jian as hard as he could towards the door, raising his voice to make sure the rest of the boarding party would hopefully hear him. "Run lads! Abandon ship as fast as your legs will carry you!"
Back on the Conquest, Carlo's anxiety had started to get the best of him and Vic's boarding party had been gone for some time with no message from either Vic or Jian. A slight change in atmosphere only exacerbated Carlo's concerns. The air around the derelict ship thickened. Val seemed to be responding to it as well, appearing just feet away from him and staring in the ship's direction, and if their hair was standing on end, Carlo could only imagine what Jian and Victor were feeling.
"Something is wrong, Captain."
"I agree, Valerie."
Almost on cue, the merchantman caught flame. The fire swiftly engulfed the bow, and soon spread across the entire hull. Carlo couldn't help but notice that the boarding crew was nowhere in sight on the deck. The flames came to a zenith before finally detonating into a sea of sparks and fire. The explosion left virtually no trace of the abandoned ship, with only a few fragments of wood and metal floating in the water to mark where it once was. Not a single member of the boarding party could be seen, and the captain feared the worst for his men. They were good, but not enough to just sit through an explosion. Carlo meekly looked over towards Valerie, knowing she'd witnessed the entire thing herself.
"Are you going to be okay?" Carlo expected the sea to rage, or a storm to fall upon them, but nothing happened. Valerie took a deep breath, staring at the bomb they triggered.
"I will be," she answered lifelessly. She continued, telling the captain that this was something they signed up for, joining his crew. She only expected Victor to die in a battle, rather than fall into a trap. Still, Carlo felt that she might have been blaming him. He deserved his crew hating him if they wanted to.
A few hundred yards from the trap, a ship soon appeared from thin air, light scattering from the hull and crew ready to complete the ambush they'd planned. A look at the flag they flew, and Captain Puma found it to be a member of the Gylian Navy; the warlock-class frigate was full of mages, enough that they could teleport their entire ship and everything in it on command a couple times a day. With the condition of the abandoned ship, it must have been set up for some time. The fact that Carlo had been the only one passing it to send his crew in to die had wracked his brain, and the thought that his most trusted men—men who willingly left their lives in his hands—were on the merchantman when it detonated hurt even more.
Something in Carlo's mind broke when he gazed at the Gylian vessel; the thing that kept him from seeking out battles like he had a death wish. Victor might've been it. He had more sense.
"Valerie."
"Yes?"
"Teleport me onto their ship," he ordered, brandishing his favorite dueling swords. "Get the ship in close!" he yelled to his helmsman, telling the fox at his side to watch his back from afar and disable their mages. She'd done it to mess with Jian quite a bit during her time with his crew, and he had no doubt that she could do it on a wider scale. Valerie nodded, and the next thing he knew, he wasn't
in Kansas anymore on the Conquest.
Disoriented, but determined, Captain Puma recovered as he charged the nearest blurry body he could see, slamming into it with his shoulder and shoving it clean off the Gylian ship. Shaking his head clear, Carlo prepared himself for an onslaught of crewmen and fireballs abound, but he was met with looks of confusion and fear from the twenty or so faces on deck. Their magic had been nullified, and it threw the Gylian warlocks off their guard.
There were about ten now-powerless mages in Carlo's view, along with what looked like less than a dozen swordsmen.
"I can't use my magic!" one of the warlocks cried. Puma swiftly struck him down, along with another warlock and a swordsman who were in the way. He didn't know how long Valerie's spell would last, so he resolved to act quickly. Occasionally a blade-wielder kept Carlo from the mages he targeted, but Gylia was mage country. They weren't a match for Carlo's seasoned swordplay, and even more so now that he threw caution to the wind. In a matter of minutes, he had wiped out fifteen of them, but more fighters flooded out from below decks as he made his way to the frigate's stern, and their magic was returning.
Carlo was soon surrounded, but with spartan grace, he tore through the wall of bodies, through blades, bayonets, and errant musket and pistol shots. Sheer physicality dominated the Gylian ship in the form of a blade-wielding snow leopard, and nothing was stopping it until the warlocks' magic had regained its full power.
Carlo readied his blades to taste more flesh, but froze in his tracks when a small blast of energy missed him by an inch and he saw the height of his folly. The rest of the ships forces had properly rallied, and now the sights of every one of its warlocks were dead-set on him, all readying one spell or another. Brute force couldn't break that formation he'd have to think of a way to - Carlo's rushed thoughts were interrupted when one of the spells fired, sending what looked like a lightning bolt... way off to his side, it missed him by a mile! "What are you doing you fool?" One of the nameless warriors chastised the premature warlock. "You could have hit some-" Another spell went off in a seemingly random direction, and the next moment some of the swordsmen began to swing at thin air, shouting battle cries and obscenities.
"We've been boarded!" Someone yelled.
"Where did they come from?! Are they demons?!" Another voice shouted. The chaos grew worse until the ship's crewmen weren't just fighting some sort of phantoms or delusions, some of them were striking down their own comrades. Whatever madness had overtaken the crew seemed almost completely indiscriminate, the only ones who seemed to be immune to it were the captain and his 5 most powerful warlocks. Carlo managed to pick out who had their wits about them with his keen eyes, and readied himself to take them out first. Three of the warlocks began to chant while the Captain and the other two warlocks readied to charge Puma a figure rose up over the ship's rim behind them. For a moment the person's eyes glowed and multiple large, furry tails seemed to wave behind them before they leaped onto the nearest chanting warlock and drove a knife into him while the tails faded as if they'd never been there at all.
The sight of tails brought a mischievous, knowing smile to Carlo's face, but he knew that he needed to focus on the matter at hand. After all, if his hunch was right then he'd have a chance to feel relieved later. With his attention back to battle, Carlo bobbed and weaved in between the mass of magical crossfire, occasionally breathing in the heat of a fire spell as it whisks by his fur. The two warlocks that had rushed him along with the apparent captain of the ship had daggers drawn, but Carlo displayed no concern for the glorified toothpicks. His twin cutlasses easily outclassed the daggers range, and with a flick of the wrist, the warlocks' jugulars were splayed wide. Another flick shook the glistening blood from Carlo's blades. Only the captain was left for Carlo to take down. The enemy captain took advantage of Carlo's little distraction, slashing at Carlo's near-defenselessness. Carlo was only able to parry his opponent's blade enough to prevent a lethal blow. A sharp twang of pain resonated from his left arm as the deflected blade sunk into his bicep. Carlo gritted his teeth and lashed out towards the opposing captain, and the sound of wrought steel echoed across the deck as captain versus captain battled.
Carlo heard his unexpected comrade drawing the warlocks' attention away from him, which left him with the confidence to focus on his current fight. Even so, Carlo knew it wasn't the time to be playing around with the enemy captain. He curled his tail around, weaved it in between the other captain's legs, and forcibly tripped him. With the naval captain on his back, Carlo slid his blades into the opponent's torso. Carlo spared a moment to watch as his victim bled out, soon shifting his attention to the rest of the battle. By now, about a dozen more warlocks had fallen. Now seemed to be as good as any to see if his hunch was right.
"Vic, I know you're there! Why don't you formally greet our hosts?!"
Vic didn't respond to Carlo's invitation immediately... but Jian did. The air shifted and contorted along one of the main mast's spars, glistened with silvery energy that swirled in an almost humanoid shape, and finally released a burst of bright light. Jian appeared once the light had faded, perched precariously atop the spar. His lips moved, uttering quiet buzzes and chitters that sounded almost insect-like. A tendril of energy shot from his free hand and wove its way across the ship, a glistening snake-like shape that coiled its way around the leg of a warlock and tugged. With a flick of Jian's wrist the tendril jerked and the warlock was thrown into the air, off the side of the boat and into the salty water.
Jian cackled, the sounds that spilled from his lips sounding more like eldritch wails than a laugh. He cast down more spells from above, tapping into every reserve of mystical energy he had. Shards of ice fell down from his position and three of the warlocks were pelted by the razor-sharp projectiles, forced to seek cover from the incoming hail. They stumbled straight into Jian's tendril which looped itself around their waists, lifting them into the air for a moment before scattering them into the air.
One struck a ship mast with a sickening crack, the impact breaking his back. The second crashed down to the deck of the ship and knocked over another member of the crew, both of them sprawled out in a small pile of bodies. The third would later meet his fate at the bottom of the ocean, tumbling off of the side of the ship.
'
Why are you trying to take this ship alone, exactly?' Jian asked Carlo, taking a moment to catch his breath.
"Call it a spurn of the moment decision!" Carlo roared. "So, are you and Mr. Foxxy the only survivors?"
The report of a flintlock pistol was the first answer he received, smoke lazily drifted from the barrel of the perpetrator and yet another body slumped to the deck. Vic waltzed the few feet between him and his captain with a mischievous smirk. "Of course not, I'd never let all my men be wiped out." His boast was punctuated by four more survivors of the boarding party scrambling over the Gylian ship's rails and joining the fray, slaughtering as many enemies as possible while they were still under the effects of Vic's illusions. "It's amazing the amount of chaos a bit of clever thinking can cause."
Seeing their opportunity, and that their fellow crewmen were in danger pirates from the Conquest began to flood the ship, now outnumbering the enemy crew after all the damage already done.
"Victor!" a voice screamed from the Conquest, but it was immediately matched by one directly in front of Mr. Foxxy. Braced against the impact, his cousin's slender arms were wrapped around his waist, and her head was buried in his chest, crying like a child. "I knew you weren't dead, I knew it IknewitIknewit!"
A gentle hand was patting Valerie's head not a moment later. "Of course." Vic replied in his most tender voice, before switching back to his normal confident tone. "It's not so easy to kill me! Glad to see you handled yourself so well while I was gone Val, now if you'd grant me freedom from your affectionate embrace, we've got a ship to subdue."
"Wait, you mean I get to help?"
"Of course! I'd say you've proven capable enough today, and later you can have some dueling practice with me instead of the furball."
"Hey!" the furball interjected, leaping over Victor's head and landing on a swordsman's shoulder, slamming him into the deck.
Another swordsman charged the group, and without even taking so much as a step forward Carlo knocked the man's sword sky high before sinking his cutlass into the man's chest and letting him drop. "Their crew is almost subdued, I'm going to find one of the warlocks before they're all slaughtered and take him alive, you two do whatever you feel is most productive." His eyes seemed to be wreathed in luminescent flames when he danced back into the crowd of blades and bodies.
Carlo watched on as his crew slaughtered the surprised mages. The way the battle on deck was progressing, it left Carlo to feel that he was no longer needed at this stage, instead feeling that his attention could be used elsewhere. After all, he knew that Vic could handle anything short of a full scale military assault. The deck was nearly vanquished, but that still left the bowels of the ship to be cleared. No doubt in Carlo's mind, he needed to be the one to lead the vanguard into the depths of the ship. Carlo's body language said everything: his imposing figure no longer displayed emotion, just the savagery of a snow leopard on the prowl. One thought crossed Carlo's mind as he neared the door to the lower deck; he wondered how he would navigate the large vessel's many corridors. At that thought, Carlo knew that someone with an expertise in magic sensory would be necessary. "Jian, follow me to the lower deck. I need you to watch my back and keep an eye out for anything magical while I clear out the stragglers."
A moment later, in his typical flurry of bright light and sparks, Jian was beside Carlo. A clawed hand rested on the leopard's shoulder, alerting the captain of the mage's presence. '
I'll keep an eye out for anything down there. A ship of this caliber is bound to have something valuable aboard.'
Jian quickly cast a spell, covering Carlo in the faintest blue light. '
This ward should dampen the effects of any magic you might come in contact with. I expect some spell casters to have fled into the belly of the ship.'
Without any further delay, Carlo entered the lower deck. The stark contrast in lighting blinded Carlo. He continued to prowl about the lower deck once his eyes adjusted. Carlo gazed around the surprisingly destitute lower deck, no signs of the enemy or anything for that matter. He sniffed the air for any possible leads, but to no avail. Finally, a slamming door alerted Carlo's senses of at least one person's whereabouts.
Carlo rushed towards the sound's origin, finding an unusually ornate door. For a moment, Carlo pondered what the door was guarding; as such a heavily decorated door was uncommon for even a naval ship. Slowly, he twisted the knob and pulled the door ajar, carefully observing its confines. What greeted Carlo's view was an overtly expensive looking room. Before entering the room, Carlo made a gesture to remain still for Jian to follow. As Carlo looked around, he couldn't help but notice a distinct rose-like smell. Carlo noticed that the smell was coming from the desk in the room, but as he looked through the papers he could not find the source of the odor. Instead, what he found was a peculiar globe and a document detailing the ship's next mission. Carlo pocketed the orders and returned to his search for the smell. He shuffled around the desk, surprised that the smell was coming from none other than the globe. As Carlo inspected the globe, he noticed small ships sailing about. One of the ships stuck out to Carlo, as it shone brightly in comparison to the others. Carlo also noticed how two other ships were near the glowing ship, perfectly identical to the current position of the ship he was currently on. Then it donned on him; the globe was displaying the locations of ships on the map. "I know where we're going." Carlo chuckled.
He exited the room, globe and document in tow. Jian greeted him at the door. With another gesture to follow, Carlo and Jian headed back towards the main deck. Upon their arrival to the main deck, they noticed that Vic and the rest of the crew had subdued the enemy. Vic was still accompanied by his cousin, Valerie, and neither of them seemed to be injured. "Vic! Have a look at what I found." Carlo held up the globe in a proud display of triumph.
"Well look what we have here!" Vic exclaimed when he got close enough to take a real look at the globe. "It's so beautiful I'm almost tempted to give it a name and start calling it a 'she'. Good find Captain, and it smells of magic too." He almost had a start when he saw the small representations of moving ships. "I'll be... I've heard of these, that's a very elaborate enchantment, finding this is almost as valuable as an actual shipment of goods by itself. Take a look, I didn't do too bad myself." The end of his sentence was punctuated by a grunt as he kicked a bound Gylian Sailor forward, the grunt was the man's only reaction before he returned to his incoherent babble. "Poor guy can't fight back because he's too busy being plagued by sea serpents, and demonic mermaids, and other fictitious horrors, looks like he must'a caught a good old case of ocean madness, can't imagine how that may have happened." He finished with a wink.
"I told you already! For the last time I don't know anything you'd be interested in, I was just hired to help conceal the ship and aid in any ambushes that occurred!" The prisoner shouted at Victor, from just looking nobody would understand why he was so distressed, he and Vic just appeared to be staring at each other from across a desk. But if you shared the mind of the captured warlock you would see all sorts of terrible phantasms all about you, you would feel a horrible itching and see lumps moving around your arms as if something were crawling under your skin.
"First of all Mr. Tanner, I'll be the judge of whether your knowledge is of interest to me, what I need from you is to tell me
anything related to this whole mess or your ship. And I must admit your mental barriers are rather strong, so although normally I would just try to force the information directly out of you, I really do need you to tell me."
"I can't!" When Vic raised an eyebrow at the man he continued, trying his best not to let the panic or imagined pain slur his speech. "Only the captain really knows anything, the rest of us just do as he says, it was a Gylian ship, for something this important everybody but the captain had to be selectively wiped of anything that might damn the mission!" Vic wasn't sure why - maybe it was because the man before him wasn't particularly tough or brave, and yet even under his most effective living nightmares divulged nothing - but he believed him.
"Well why didn't you say so sooner? I could have made this so much quicker and easier for you." The man breathed a huge sigh of relief when all the hallucinations and feelings ended abruptly, it was so nice just to be through it all he almost passed out there and then. The look on Vic's face, however, made him feel almost as if his skin were crawling on it's own this time. The quartermaster-turned-inquisitor stood up and inhaled deeply, when he opened his eyes they seemed to be wreathed in white flames, and similar blue flames formed in the palm of his hands. Even though the flames were not burning anything a small amount of smoke began to drift out of them and towards the man.
The prisoner watched, frozen in place, while the white smoke floated towards him, and just as it got to him it split around his head and darted into his ears. When the smoke moved, Vic slammed the wispy flames onto the man's hands.
Carlo had returned to his quarters, worn down by the lengthy battle. He decided that before he would lay down to sleep that he would look over the orders he had stolen from the Gylian ship. As he pulled out the piece of paper, a scream of pure anguish pierced Carlo's ears, an indication that Vic had completed his job. With Carlo's attention now back to the Gylian orders, he scanned over the text. The document read out field orders to occupy an island on the outskirts of the Elysian Frontier. Carlo noticed that these orders were from the Gylian emperor himself, Emperor Augustus Gylia VIII. They clearly mentioned a vast, unclaimed treasure unlike anything ever seen. It spoke of ancient technology, endless amounts of gold, and unparalleled power. A smile crept across Carlo's face as he knew what the Puma pirates next course of action would be. Once more, he delayed his sleep, and within minutes, they were off for the new frontier.
